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sake of scientific analysis, surely, with a similar object, the ardent chirognomist may play with a lady's hand especially as he is not going to hurt her. You request her in the first place with a wholly philosophical object, bien entendu to allow you to inspect the palm; noting carefully, as your instructions direct, its "thickness, texture, and quality;" to ascertain which points effectually will require a little of what, under less scientific relations, would be called "squeezing:" which, when you have to deal with "the warm, silky, well-coloured palm of youth" (we quote our text-book again, though its language here is not so severely philosophical as might be wished), can be no disagreeable operation. "It is in the palm that the warmest feelings of affection find their inarticulate expression." But remember- "the operation requires delicacy and care -more particularly when the hand is soft." [If the operator is at all soft himself, the risk will, of course, be greater.] You remark seriously upon the "line of life," and the line of the heart"-which naturally run in quite different directions -note playfully the tastes indicated by the subdivisions in the "line of Apollo"-touch with all possible delicacy on the development of the "Ring of Venus "-and avoid, we should say, altogether, any allusion to the "line of the liver;" unless, indeed, you have a penchant for a valetudinarian lady of independent income, in which case it is a line in which a promising business might be done, with tact, by a sympathising practitioner. Next, you proceed from the palm of the hand to the outline-technically, from Chirognomy to Chiromancy. You lay the fair fingers outstretched upon a sheet of paper whose creamy whiteness they put to shame, and trace the outline thereon at your leisure" with a Mordan's pencil," observe (the direction is in italics, and we don't suppose anything else would do), holding the subject

firmly and closely with your other hand; simply, of course, to prevent any disarrangement of position during this delicate process.

Like other sciences, where a lady is the scholar, correctness is not the first requisite. You don't suppose that Miss Marie Coupelle, who tells your character from your handwriting for twelve stamps, and who receives such charming little letters (as you may see in her advertisement) from her grateful clients"You have hit my description to a T"-"You know me better than I know myself," &c., &c., &c.-would ever make a living by Queen's heads, if she pronounced the moral characters of her correspondents to be as hopelessly irregular as their up-and-down strokes? You must be a very stupid and unpopular lecturer indeed, if you cannot make out that every mark in the palm, and every configuration of the finger-joints, is the index of some feminine perfection. With a little management, you may appeal to the book for it all. Has she a broad thumb? it shows strength of character. Is it narrow? it betrays that melting softness of disposition which in her sex is even more charming. Are the joints of the fingers rather large-in short, of the "knotty" type? it shows a philosophical mind-she is a sensible woman. If they are pointed and smooth, she is of the " artistic-impulsive' class. Painting, poetry, music, and song, one or all of them, are either existing or possible accomplishments. If she has never touched a pencil or struck a note in her life, it will be all the more gratifying to her to know that powers which others attain only by time and study she has ready at her fingers' ends. Is her hand large? "its creations are delicacy and finish;" if it is small,—such is the type which alone is capable of producing "works of grandeur and power." And as to the chiromancy

the art of the "Romany Rye,' pure and simple-you will hardly

66

be absurd enough to notice those breaks in the line of the heart "towards the root of the middle finger," which are "supposed to involve fatality;" or between that and the third finger, "folly;" or towards the third finger, "fatuity;" or between that and the little finger, "stupidity and littleness;" or "towards the little finger," 'avarice, with ignorance and incapacity." Your very Ascot gypsy would be too scientific for that. One must be the very Abernethy of handconsultations to come out with such unpleasant language as this, when you can note so easily those little lines called "Branches," which show, if proceeding from the line of the heart, "warmth and devotion;" from the line of the head, "superior intelligence;" from the line of life," superabundant vigour and health;" from the line of Saturn, "happiness complete." It will be the fault of the manipulator -not of the science-if, with acute eyesight, a fair amount of happy invention, and a little squeezing down of an over-developed "mound" here and there, he cannot convince his patient that she has the "MAIN HEUREUSE," of which Mr Beamish gives us an elaborate sketch, with its index of contents arranged something after the fashion of a sensation play-bill, to which we merely throw in a note or two of admiration here and there :

"Double line of Life. Absolute Success (Saturn). Superior Affections.

Union of Love.

never have been noticed in these grave pages. It promises to solve, in a great degree, the prevalent and increasing difficulty of which all careful mistresses of families complain-how to find good servants. The difficulty has been discussed over and over again, in jest and earnest; 'Punch' has made capital of the atrocities of "servant-galism," noblemen have written to the 'Times,' and grave lookers-on-bachelors, of course-have gone so far as to attribute some share in the deterioration of the article to the decline of housewifely qualities in the mistresses-a libellous assertion which, we need not say, is confined to anonymous writers in newspapers and periodicals, and which no man has ever yet ventured to make in the presence of the lady of the house where he dines. But in this volume we have a clue to the root of the evil. The mistresses have hitherto been acting on entirely mistaken principles in their selection; they have ignored chirognomy entirely in choosing cook, butler, or buttons. They have acted in these matters with utter disregard to "the distinction between the hard knotty spatulous hand of industry, and the smooth, full, and pointed hand of impulse and indolence." They have gone to a register office, and taken the recommendation of a lady who gets half-acrown each from every servant she succeeds in "placing"-having thus a direct pecuniary interest in their changing their places as often as they decently can; or they have trusted to a written "character," to be bought (it would not be to the interests of morality if we gave the addresssay anywhere) for five shillings, grammar warranted; with "personal reference" to a welldressed lady in respectable lodgings, five shillings more. Or they take the recommendation of a friend, who has to get rid of a worthless servant, not exactly a drunkard or a thief, and gives a character out of good-nature, taking into her own

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service instead a "treasure" recommended by some other accommodat ing friend. More than this, they act in direct opposition to the true principles of diagnosis, making their 66 natural selection" of a butler because he has such an air of respecta bility, or a lady's-maid because she is so "nice-looking." Why, in these cases you may be almost certain to have the soft, smooth, pointed hand of impulse and indolence;" how can it be expected to find the hands of such superior people "knotty and spatulous"? Let all such misguided heads of families listen and learn. Two outline tracings are given, taken from the hands of two servants; one, a decentlooking hand enough-the other, as ugly a paw as you will readily see; but their moral order is exactly reversed.

"These tracings are from the hands of two females, servants of a friend with whom I resided at Cannes during the winter of 1862-3; the one a native of Scotland, the other of Nice; the one characterised by a love of order, propriety, simplicity, good sense, and indefatigable physical activity; the other by disorder, neglect, and slothfulness, with a certain poetic devotion and artistic feeling. While the one sought to discharge her duties with consistency, uniformity, and scrupulous attention to order and cleanliness, the other was hopelessly indifferent to all such considerations and requirements. Her gown torn, her shoes down at heel, her arms crossed, she preferred the contemplation of the moonlight on the water, and the enjoyment of a sociable chit-chat with any stray visitors to her kitchen, to the performance of her duties; or, if she

voluntarily laboured, it was usually in the preparation of a collar, a flounce, or a cap, to adorn her person upon high days and holidays, into the details of which she could enter with curious minuteness. The redeeming qualities and which retained her in her employ; ment- were her kindly impulses and her general integrity."

Both professors, we observe, have drawn up their rules of interpretation almost entirely with reference to the hand masculine; which we cannot help thinking a mistake on

their parts. In the first place, a very large proportion of those who submit their hands to examination are likely to be of the softer sex, for many reasons. We should not ourselves care much to examine the palms and digits of our male acquaintance. There are apt to be knots and bumps from cricketballs, and blisters from rowing, and many other anomalies which would sadly puzzle us, being but dabblers in the science; and, with the highest personal respect both for Lord Brougham and for the English navvy, there are hands which we should find more interesting, even if less spatulous. Besides, we cannot help thinking that this psychonomy of the hand might, if carefully studied, have afforded some help to the modern Colebs in search of a wife-a process in which all guides, except fate and fancy, have hitherto been helpless. Yet, as we said to begin with, if these twin sciences be true-of which far be it from us to whisper a doubt-a woman carries her character in her hand as surely as a horse carries his age in his mouth.

We cannot help suspect

ing that such an adaptation of this science-which its revivers admit has great antiquity-was known to some at least of our ancestors. In one of the oldest marriage negotiations of a young English gentleman which have come down to us, Mr William Paston (as we saw in these pages not long since), writing to his brother to have his opinion as to the object of his affections, begs that he will "specially behold her hands." Such a reconnaissance, scientifically made, might secure that desirable knowledge of the lady's character before marriage which the late Sir Morgan O'Doherty declared to be only attainable by getting hired-if possible as a lady's-maid-into the family. It must have been the defect of some faculty of practical application (probably a want of squareness in the first finger) which has prevented our professors from laying

down rules for this important investigation in a short and comprehensive form. We do not profess to supply the omission formally; but a few general hints may be of service.

If, in the hand which you aspire to, the fingers are smooth, they betoken "inspiration, intuition, passion;" they will play you Mozart or Beethoven, arrange your flowervases to perfection, possibly write a sensation novel,-but certainly not mend your shirts; their owner will have the vaguest possible appreciation of the household bills, or of the capabilities of the magic £300 a-year on which (we are told) young couples may marry and "live happy ever afterwards." If, on the contrary, they are "knotty," you have the promise of "induction, order, arrangement;" you must indulge no visions of highly refined tastes, but you will have some one to "see to" your buttons, to exercise a strict regimen over the domestic economy, and submit the butcher's and baker's bills to the sternest rules of arithmetic. If the said fingers are spatulous, "it is indicative of constancy in pursuit and affection." [The constancy in pursuit, so far as the ladies are concerned, must be taken to apply only to would-be mothers-in-law-the affection, to their daughters.] But the fair one will have "no love for spiritual poetry"-which will be a considerable drawback to the most constant attachment. If they are square, she will be devoted to "routine, precedent, custom". female red-tapist, punctilious in the matter of return calls, given to orthodox dinners-salmon and lamb, cod and turkey, in their seasons, and the other proprieties of life; "a form widely distributed among the English." If conical or pointed, she will be a "worshipper of the beautiful and romantic," but with habits of "insouciance and contemplation, and personal independence;" gazing into the stars when she ought to be making the

-a

tea, and declining to give any explanation of such conduct to the legitimate authority.

Then as to the joints :-if the " upper joint is distinctly pronounced," it is termed the "philosophical knot;" which shows "independence of thought, and an aptitude for the exact sciences: " but," in an ordinary hand," it is the index (amongst other doubtful qualities) of a tendency "to that simplest of all intellectual occupations, fault - finding." The lower joint of the first finger should be examined: if much developed, it indicates "a desire for command ;" and there is a good deal of "garrulity" in a pointed third finger. But, above all, the careful lover should look to the Thumb. It is, as we have seen, the index of Will. If it be small, there may be "irresolution" to some extent, but there will be "an accommodating and loving spirit." But beyond this the choice of thumbs becomes difficult. If it be of ordinary size, with both "phalanges equal, you must anticipate "passive resistance;" if larger than usualstill equal in its phalanges-" a desire for domination will be indicated, but without tyranny;" but "if the first phalange exceed the second in length and power, the desire will be for domination amounting to tyranny." Under that thumb, speaking without the ordinary metaphor (which here finds its explanation), you will be all your life, in spite of the ring on the middle finger: "Hanc tu, Romane, caveto." Look at that savage redhaired woman in Mr Solomon's picture-how she turns down her thumb to seal the fate of the unlucky gladiator! and what a thumb it is! Those old Romans had meaning in their signs. We no longer wonder that Miss Biffin, spite of her personal deficiencies, speedily found a husband; the want of fingers, no doubt, had its inconveniences, but think of the unalloyed domestic happiness which Mr Wright must have looked forward to with

a wife who had positively no thumbs !

Compared with this, other investigations become less important. It may be well to note, however, that if the line of life is irregularly marked, it is an indication of "unequal temper;" that if the line of the heart" presents the form of a chain," it prognosticates "flirtations without number;" if it cross the whole palm, you may look for "excess of tenderness," and as a possible consequence "jealousy;" and that, if the line of the head "descend suddenly towards the Mountain of the Moon, it indicates a desire of money for the purpose of satisfying the caprices of the imagination opera-boxes, fancy jewellery, milliners' bills, &c., &c.; while if it does so only "after having traversed the centre of the palm," it shows that "life will be regarded from an artistic point of view". -a habit of

mind which, in the future mistress of a family, may have its inconveniences.

But all those whom such speculations may concern can look at the book, and study its practical application for themselves. We do not object in the least to the ladies taking up the science- and we have no doubt that, if they take to chiromancy, they will find willing patients to operate upon-but we warn them that with the present rage for rifle practice, mountaineering, and athletics of all kinds, they will find the gentlemen's hands harder to read. We deprecate the conclusion that the hard palm is in all cases the index of "laborious stolidity;" and even M. Desbarolles warns them that "the soft hand may exhibit tenderness with only moderate attachment." It will not do to force the rules of any philosophy to their extremes.

MISS MARJORIBANKS was naturally the first to recover her senses in this emergency. Even she, selfpossessed as she was, felt, to be sure, the natural giddiness inseparable from such a strange reversal of the position. But she did not lose her head like the others. She looked at her protégée standing white and tremulous in the shadow of the little porch, and on the Archdeacon, whose manly countenance had paled to a corresponding colour. A man does not seize a woman by the sleeve and ask, "Is it you?" without some reason for an address so destitute of ordinary courtesy; and Lucilla was sufficiently versed in such matters to know that so rude and impersonal an accost could be only addressed to some one whose presence set the speaker's heart beating, and quickened the blood in his veins. It was odd, to say the least,

VII.

after the way in which he had just been speaking to herself; but Miss Marjoribanks, as has been already said, was not the woman to lose her head. She recovered herself with the second breath she drew, and took her natural place. "I can see that you have something to say to each other," said Lucilla. "Mrs Mortimer, ask Mr Beverley to walk in. Never mind me. I want to speak to these little Lakes. I shall see you presently," Miss Marjoribanks added, nodding pleasantly to the Archdeacon-and she went away to the other end of the garden, calling to the children with that self-possession which is the gift only of great minds. But when Lucilla found herself at a safe distance, and saw the Archdeacon stoop to go in under the porch, it cannot be denied that her mind was moved by the sight. It was she who had